One year later, New Brunswick rehired Caputo as police director — the same position — at a $120,000 salary. For one job, he receives two checks, totaling $235,019 a year. Caputo did not respond to a request for comment.

For a privileged minority of public employees, benefits are so generous that many become pension millionaires without double-dipping. Meanwhile, state retirement funds face a deficit estimated from $36 billion to $144 billion.

Joseph Blaettler will rake in more than $4.5 million from the Police and Firemen’s Retirement Fund, if he reaches age 80, his statistical life expectancy.

“Politicians created this system, and I simply accepted what they gave me along the way,” wrote Blaettler in an email to New Jersey Watchdog. “If taxpayers want to get angry with someone, they need to ask their local and state politicians how they allowed the system to get to the point it is at.”

New Jersey Watchdog found 56 other $100K Club members who retired in their 40s. (See list below.) All are PFRS pensioners who worked for local or county governments and took advantage of the special retirement rule, available only to eligible police, prosecutors and fire officials.

The rule allows them to retire at any age after 25 years of employment. Their pension pay ranges from 60 percent to 70 percent of their highest salary under the state’s formula.

Of the $100K Club’s 1,244 pensioners, 552 — or 45 percent — belong to PFRS. Special retirements account for 479 — or 87 percent — of those six-figure pensions.

The club also includes 383 retirees from the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund, 253 from the Judicial Retirement System and 99 from the Public Employee Retirement System.

No one from the State Police Retirement System made the $100K Club. SPRS’s top retiree, William Malast, fell short with $97,897 a year in pension pay.

Not surprisingly, the biggest pensions often go to public officials who received the largest salaries.

Robert Mulcahy hit the jackpot, when he was fired as Rutgers University’s $341,250-a-year athletic director in 2008. He was forced out after a university audit found secret deals and off-the-books spending by his regime.

Mulcahy received a severance package that cost Rutgers more than $600,000. Under the agreement, the state university paid:

$511,875, equaling 18 months of Mulcahy’s salary,

$60,000 in bonus money,

$18,000 in automobile allowance,

$13,950 for country club membership dues, and

$15,000 to pay Mulcahy’s lawyer for negotiating the agreement.

Because Mulcahy was paid in one lump sum, he was free to start collecting a $162,399 annual pension from PERS the following month. It is the second-largest retirement benefit paid by New Jersey.

New Jersey Watchdog’s research focused on retirees from public employment who receive more than $100,000 a year in retirement pay from the state pension system. Disability pensions and benefits for survivors were not included the study.

Data are from state pension records provided by the New Jersey State Treasury. Pension amounts are current as of December 31, 2011.

The above table lists employees who took “special retirements” before age 50. The retirement ages are accurate within a six-month margin of error. State and local government agencies consider release of exact birth dates as an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of public employees.

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Links to New Jersey Watchdog’s previous investigative stories on New Jersey public pensions: